17 Nov
2024
17 Nov
'24
12:24 a.m.
On Sat, 16 Nov 2024, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote:
Think of how much better the state of the
microprocessor would be IBM had
chosen the 68000 Linear Architecture rather than the 8086 Segment:Offset with
separate I/O instructions and only 1 interrupt architecture.
I don't mean to start a huge architecture argument so please don't flame me.
Well, a blank slate resultsin a better final product, although it takes
longer to develop, and all support needs to be re-implemented.
By adding a kludge to an existing product, the final result isn't as good,
but it is available much more quickly, and hardware and software support
requires "minor" updates. For example, when the PC came out, Micropro was
able to patch Wordstar VERY quickly; it took them longer (as a
word-processor company) to edit the manuals.
The Mac was released with MacWrite and MacPaint; how long was it before a
spreadsheet program and other word processors were available?
So, Intel went with the "quick fix" rather than the long-term good.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin(a)xenosoft.com